Four Grand

I've been sewing up a storm, and have a new pattern available for a set of really cool table mats.  The design was inspired by this gorgeous,mostly black and white fabric collection called "Sparkle and Fade" from Hoffman California Fabrics.

The fabric is elegant and rich, the ebony and ivory of a grand piano.  Or even better -four grand pianos! I chose different prints for each, two white and two black.  This one made me think of John Lennon's famous white piano :)

A pure white low loft needle punch batting was used, since place mats shouldn't be too puffy. The white keys were quilted heavily with pebbles, and the black ones left as is so that they pop up. I used 50 weight Aurifil thread for quilting the keys, and Aurifil silver metallic to work a simple serpentine stitch on the piano itself.

After quilting, 12 weight Aurifil was used to topstitch straight lines down the keys.  Simple, but effective. This thread is available from my thread store.

I love the black polka dot binding!

The mats measure about 16" each way.  What's really cool is that they all fit together to make a centrepiece. They are very easy to make, as the keyboard is strip-pieced, and the body of the piano is just one piece.

 The pattern is available as a printed copy from my website, or as an instant download here.

Playing With a Prototype

I've been working on a new pattern and decided I was ready to sew a first draft.  When designing a patchwork project, it is imperative that all the pieces fit precisely; the math has to work, as does the piecing that tests this math.  Normally I design on the computer, but this piece has an odd-shaped background that was easier to draw with paper and pencil.  

Once sewn, every individual patch is measured to ensure that the seam allowance is a perfect 1/4". You'd never do this on your own quilt, but the pattern has to be bang on. Because this is just a draft, I didn't want to spend a lot of time on the "how will I quilt this" question, instead opting to use a stencil I picked up this winter at Mrs Pugsley's. It pretty much fit the space without adjustment.  Isn't it elegant?

With black fabric, it is super simple to transfer the design using a chalk pounce.  Simply lay the stencil on the fabric and slide the pounce over it.

The chalk lines are very visible for quilting.

The lines come right off afterwards;  the package says to use a hot iron, which has worked well for me in the past, but I just brushed them off this time. The batting is a scrap of polyester needlepunch and I didn't think a hot iron would do it any favours. The quilting isn't perfect - "quickly done" was my aim - but even so it's passable, I think.

I stitched the binding on last evening.  When all was said and done, my calculations were out 1/8", which is an easy fix.  The adjustments have now been made to the pattern, and I feel confident that I am ready to start cutting my good fabric.  I may even use this stencil again.